We were up in Westminster all day today for my niece, Danielle’s seventh birthday. It's been a long day of playing with the kids and I am pretty beat. When I get with the kids I become the living toy. Since it wasn't raining we spent all of our time outside and I know I'll be paying for it later, but it's worth it. All of our neices and nephews are great kids. What really amazes me today is that Danielle is seven. SEVEN! I can remeber holding her in the hospital the day she was born. It’s been fascinating and fun watching all of my nieces and nephews grow up from babies to little people. The thing that I am happiest about is that they all have a love of the arts in some form from fine arts to performing arts. Danielle’s love of crafts has grown into a love of painting and my brother and his wife are encouraging this. They got her a private art teacher a few months back and she is learning about composition, shape, lighting, color, etc. She understands the color wheel and even mixes her own colors. It’s really something to be able to sit down with a seven year old and talk about art and photography. She tells me how she paints her subjects using her palette and I tell her about how I use my camera to paint with light. The cool part is that she understands what I am talking about and I don’t have to dumb it down. When I show her my photos she appreciates them, even the abstract ones, which she seems to like best. Of course our conversations can be somewhat short. She is seven after all and the other kids can easily distract her. That’s okay though because she is becoming an artist. I couldn’t be happier. Happy seventh birthday, Danielle.